Georgia jails six political figures in one week in crackdown on opposition

Georgian opposition leader Nika Melia has become the latest opposition figure to be sent to jail this week in a crackdown described by observers as an unprecedented attack on the country’s democracy.

The South Caucausus state has seen months of political turmoil since the government halted its path to join the EU in the wake of disputed elections.

Six prominent politicians have been given jail terms, and another two are in pre-trial detention, so that most of the leaders of the pro-Western opposition are now behind bars.

On Friday, Nika Melia, one of the leaders of Coalition for Change, was jailed for eight months by a court in Tbilisi and former opposition MP Givi Targamadze was given seven months.

The scale and speed of the crackdown has come as a shock, and Nika Melia accused the government of trying to break the courage of Georgians.

All of the jailed politicians have been convicted of refusing to testify before a parliamentary commission and barred from holding public office for two years.

In what it called “the most severe democratic collapse in Georgia’s post-Soviet history”, anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International said the governing Georgian Dream party, led by billionaire founder Bidzina Ivanishvili, had launched “a full-scale authoritarian offensive”.

In a matter of days, jail terms have also been handed down to four other opposition leaders: Giorgi Vashadze and Zurab Japaridze, as well as Badri Japaridze and Mamuka Khazaradze, two former bank executives. Another prominent opposition leader, Nika Gvaramia, is in pre-trial detention as well as a former defence minister.

“The Soviet Union has returned to our present and wants our minds to cling to the past,” Nika Melia wrote on Facebook. Georgia regained its independence when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.

Norway said this week that the arrest of opposition leaders was an “unprecedented attack on Georgia’s democracy” and it called for an end to “repressive actions”.

After last October’s elections, the opposition accused Ivanishvili’s party of stealing the vote.

Opposition parties then boycotted parliament and, when the European Parliament denounced the election as neither free nor fair, the ruling party halted Georgia’s bid to join the European Union.

Georgians have since protested in central Tbilisi every night for more than 200 nights, demanding new elections and the release of all prisoners arrested during pro-EU rallies.

The government then set up an investigative parliamentary commission into the “alleged crimes” of the previous government before Georgian Dream came to power in 2012, specifically the period covering Georgia’s war with Russia in 2008.

Failing to comply with a “lawful request” by a parliamentary commission is a criminal offence under Georgia’s criminal code. Opposition politicians have refused to testify, partly because of their boycott of parliament, but also because they reject it as a politically motivated attack on government critics.

Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze told parliament on Friday that the commission was doing very important work exposing a previous government that was “entirely built on crime”.

“Everyone must understand once and for all that there is no place for criminals in Georgian politics.”

Human rights groups say 500 people have been arrested during the recent street protests and that 300 of them were subjected to torture. As many as 60 people are being held as political prisoners, they say.

Respected journalist Mzia Amaglobeli remains imprisoned, and independent TV stations face censorship and financial ruin.

Earlier this week 40 civil society groups said that Bidzina Ivanishvili had “chosen to maintain power through dictatorship, and fundamental human rights are violated every day”.

Ivanishvili, who is under US sanctions, accumulated his wealth in Russia during the 1990s. He formally retired from politics but is widely believed to have control over all branches of government.

Last month, a former confidant of Ivanishvili who went on the run said he was “kidnapped from abroad” and flown back to Georgia by force as a political prisoner.

Giorgi Bachiashvili had been on trial in Georgia accused of misappropriating millions of dollars in a case he said was politically motivated.

Georgian authorities say Bachiashvili, 39, was convicted of a crime while in absentia and will serve his jail sentence.

His lawyer, Robert Amsterdam, told the BBC he was deeply concerned for his safety: “Too many people see him as a highly competent political figure.”